They had to play nine home games at the Universitario stadium, better known as the Volcano in the last seven years, so that the Tigers could break a curse that they were dragging without a victory at home against America by winning 1-0 in the activity of date 3 of the Apertura 2024 tournament with a goal from Mexican forward Marcelo Flores.
A victory that suits him well to the feline squad led by the Serbian Veljko Paunovic, because it represents a morale boost to get rid of that burden without being able to defeat America, where they also accumulated five years without being able to defeat the Americanists in duels both in the feline enclosure in the Sultana del Norte and in the Azteca.
Not to go any further, the last time that Tigres had beaten América in the building located in the town of San Nicolás de los Garza, in the capital of Monterrey, was in the semifinals of the tournament. Apertura 2027 when they won 3-0 with two goals from Ecuadorian Enner Valencia and one more from Frenchman André Pierre Gignac.
Now, after almost 2,555 days, the felines saw the light again against a very pitiful version of the current two-time champion of the Liga MX, América, who thus accumulated the second setback of the championship, since in their debut of the Apertura 2024 tournament they lost 2-1 to Atlético San Luis, proving that the missing pieces in his scheme are weighing too much.
Especially because in the absence of the Uruguayans Sebastián Cáceres and Brian Rodríguez and the Chileans Diego Valdés and Igor Lichnovsky, as well as the Colombian reinforcement Cristián Borja, the Brazilian coach André Jardine has had to resort to the players from his youth academy and it is where he has offered advantages. in the key moments of the three games he has played and where he only has one victory over the Gallos Blancos de Querétaro on the previous date 3-1.
But the least guilty of this is Tigres, who, on the contrary, was growing from its own fears in the duel against the current two-time champion of the Liga MX, because in the first 25 minutes, it was America with the Spaniard Álvaro Fidalgo, Paraguayan Richard Sánchez, Henry Martín and Dutchman Javairo Dilrosun, who created danger against the felines’ goal.
Álvaro Fidalgo’s “bear” sealed America’s fate
Precisely in the 13th minute, in a dangerous move by Dilrosun, who gave half a goal to the Spaniard Fidalgo, This one, by finishing with his chest, sent the ball over the goal of goalkeeper Carlos Rodríguez in an incredible move to miss it. and who let slip away the great opportunity that they would later regret because of the way the stock changed.
This action gave greater strength to the actions and both teams had alternate scoring options for the rest of the first half, cLike the arrival of Colombian Luis Quiñones or the arrival of Erick “Chiquito” Sánchez, which left Tigres and América without any chance of scoring.
In the second half, both teams lowered their intensity, until in a clear option in the 66th minute, André-Pierre Gignac He made a very good individual play to have a shooting opportunity, but his shot was blocked by Malagón.
But during this period Tigres grew and America did not have as much strength, because it was where the lack of quality in the players who came in as substitutes made the felines, with Marcelo Flores, Sebastián Córdova and Ozziel Herrera, gave more strength to his teammates and just four minutes from the end of normal time, in a set-piece play, Córdova passed it to Flores on the left so he could take a cross shot and score the long-awaited winning goal.
Keep reading:
-America is the Super Cup champion after beating Tigres 2-1
-Tigres breaks 30-year alliance with Televisa and will now sign with TV Azteca
-America gets back on track in the 2024 Apertura tournament by beating Querétaro 3-1